The present invention relates to the field of borehole drilling for the production of hydrocarbons from subsurface formations. In particular, the present invention relates to systems that modify the drilling process based upon information gathered during the drilling process.
As oil well drilling becomes more and more complex, the importance of maintaining control over as much of the drilling equipment as possible increases in importance.
There is, therefore, a need in the art to infer the actual borehole trajectory from the measurements made by existing systems. There is also a need in the art to project the borehole trajectory beyond the greatest measured depth as a function of the control parameters.
While the present invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific exemplary embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.